Chapter 6
In everyone's high school lives there is a time when you so desperately wish that you had graduated. For some that time comes early, around freshman year but for others it comes later, sometime between Decembers of junior year all the way to April of senior year. The group at Tree Hill High caught senioritis about the same time.
Nathan was ready to move on to bigger and much better things. He, unlike the rest, knew that there was definitely a bigger picture than just their little town in North Carolina. He knew that he would leave, go to college, and be successful just like his father had done. Part of him wanted to be just like his father. He was so successful through out his life, he was an asshole, but he was successful and in this day and age success is the key.
He sat in the gym where he had played so many games years before. The smell of sweat, blood, and tears was still present. The clock and timer on the wall reminded him of the hours he spent in this gym, at that free throw line shooting and shooting until his arms felt as if they would fall off at any moment.
The sidelines. Memories of Brooke came to him along with the slight smell of deodorant mixed with sweat. He closed his eyes and leaned back until his back reached the edge of the bleacher. His hands ran over the blue bleacher seats. The cold on his hands made him wish that they felt like this after all those hard practices.
Opening his eyes he looked around the gym. His retired number hung along the side of his brothers, Lucas Scott. Nathan missed him dreadfully. Lucas was his other half, his better half. The kinder, more understanding Scott brother. Nathan wondered how Lucas had any Dan in him.
As if he knew that he was thinking of his brother, the doors opened. A taller, manlier looking Lucas Scott entered into the Raven's Nest. He looked around the gym, as if in awe of the fact that it was nearly four years previous to this moment that he had been in this exact place. He caught his brother's eyes and smiled.
He had missed him just as much, if not more than his sibling. Nathan brought out a different side in Lucas. A more intense, passionate side to Lucas than he had ever known existed. He hugged his brother, excited to be in his embrace. To Lucas that meant he was real. He wasn't just a voice on a phone line, or words in an email. It was his brother and they were together. The way brothers were supposed to be.
Lucas pulled away and looked into his brothers eyes, "Listen man, I'm sorry."
Nathan followed Lucas across the gym, "No." He shook his head. "I should have called you earlier or something." He leaned over and picked up a ball. Whitey always wanted all the balls picked up, so when Nathan, Lucas, and Jake would come in to play after school there wouldn't be any balls. They came up with the idea to hide one ball behind the bleachers. It was the basketball team's secret hiding place. He showed the ball to Lucas, "Same place. Guess they passed the trick down from generation to generation."
"Yeah, well some of the freshman that played with us was our biggest fans so of course they would hide the ball where The Nathan Scott hid his ball." They laughed remembering how crazy the underclassmen were about the Scott boys, Nathan for his skills and Lucas for his personality.
Lucas ran his hands over his unshaven face and looked toward the doors. They opened and Jake Jagielski entered. His brown hair was a little longer. He, out of everyone, looked the oldest. Being without Jenny seemed to have taken its toll on him. He ran his hands over his shirt and called out, "Well if it isn't Lucas fucking Scott. Where the hell have you been?"
"Not here." Lucas said shooting the ball and watching it go right through the hoop. "Nothin' but net." He looked back to Jake, "Where have you been?"
"Greensboro." He took the ball from Nathan and dribbled it. He passed it back to him and watched him put up a three. "Damn. Well fellas I'm gonna be a little rusty. I didn't play college ball, unlike you two."
Nathan shrugged his shoulders and sat down. He looked up at Lucas, "I got a girlfriend."
He gave him a confused look and sat in front of him on the gymnasium floor, "What? A girlfriend?"
"Yeah," Jake said, "You should see her. Close your eyes and think Brooke."
"Okay." Lucas did just as Jake had said. Nathan even did the same.
"Alright. Add blonde hair, blue eyes, and three inches. Got it."
"Got it."
"Now think boobs just a little bigger..."
"Are not." Nathan said quickly opening his eyes. Lucas and Jake did the same. He had dug himself a hole. "What are you doing looking at her boobs anyways?" Now he was almost out of the hole.
"I think they are." Jake said, remembering the way Brooke looked in her shirt as well as the way Lauren looked the day before.
"Let's not talk about my girlfriend's breasts."
"Do you mean girlfriends as in possessive or plural?" Lucas asked, sarcastically.
Nathan hit him on the arm, "Possessive, jackass."
"Well, anyway, she seems hott." Lucas said. He crossed his arms and straightened his legs out.
"She is damn hott. Just like Brooke."
"Is not."
"Yes she is. They went shopping yesterday and came home last night with arm loads of bags of new clothes."
"Sounds like Brooke hasn't changed much." Lucas said crossing his legs and leaning forward.
"She seems," Jake started to say, "Like she has grown up a lot."
"She had some growing to do..." Nathan said.
Lucas interrupted him, "Like you didn't."
"No," Nathan said quickly, "I didn't mean it like that."
"Yes you did." Jake retorted.
"Maybe I did." He paused and looked at Jake, "Just don't tell her okay?"
"Why would Jake tell Brooke?" Lucas asked, confused.
"They are dating."
Jake almost said, no we aren't, but he then remembered what he had promised Brooke. She needed him and maybe he needed her too. "Yeah, well."
Lucas hit his old friend on the shoulder, "No kidding."
"No kidding."
"I have an idea. Lets go back to Nathan's house so you can see everyone." Jake said to Lucas.
"Haley is there for sure." Lucas said, "I dropped her off there before I came here."
"What about Peyton?" Jake asked. He remembered all the night that Peyton watched Jenny while he was watching. She had always been there for him. They were best friends after Brooke left.
"I haven't heard from her." Lucas said.
Nathan stood up and reached for his basketball bag, "I haven't heard from her since she graduated."
Nathan was not the only one upset after Brooke left. Peyton was distraught. She felt like Brooke had abandoned her. She and Brooke were allied. They were the best friends that anyone could have ever had. They were almost the same person, but when she left Peyton was alone. That is why she never came back because she couldn't bear to come back knowing that Brooke wouldn't be there.
The boys looked around the gym and then looked at each other. "Lets get out of here." Lucas said. "I didn't really want to come back here anyway."
"Me neither." Jake said, itching his shoulder.
"Okay," Nathan said pushing the door open, "Lets go back to my house."
The three guys loaded into their individual cars and followed Nathan to his new estate. Finally the crew would be together for the first time since Brooke left that night four falls ago.
Author Note: How do you like it? Everything going okay? No Lauren in this chapter, but from what I have gathered most people think Lauren is okay. The verdict is still out on Nathan/Brooke or Jake/Brooke. Who knows what will happen?
Next Chapter:
Haley and Peyton Enter...
More Lauren and maybe even a suprise from her...
Brooke and Nathan Confrontation...